Maggie's Study Guide for APES: Unit 1

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Biotic Factors

 These are the living components of an ecosystem.

Producers

 Plants that produce their own food through photosynthesis.

Consumers

Animals that rely on other organisms for food.

Decomposers

Microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi that break down dead organisms and recycle nutrients back into the ecosystem.

Abiotic Factors

These are the nonliving components of an ecosystem.

Ecological Succession

Ecosystems change and develop over time, typically by a disturbance. It can involve changes in species composition and ecosystem structure.

The Boom and Bust Cycle

the rise of a population to outbreak levels, followed by a dramatic decline

Density-Dependent Factor

Any force that affects the size of a population of living things in response to the density of the population

Symbiosis

 Interactions between individuals of two different species that is long term.

Mutualism

Both organisms gain when two species of different creatures give resources or assistance to one another.

Commensalism

two organisms of different species provide each other with resources or services, and both organisms benefit. (Nor harmed)

Obligate Mutualism

one organism cannot survive without the other

Facultative Mutualism

Not necessarily needed for survival and both convenient for both organisms

Resource partitioning

Two species evolve to divide a resource based on differences in their behavior.

Ectoparasites

Are those that live on the surface of the host.

Endoparasites

 are those that live inside the host. 

Lotic Ecosystem

a kind of environment that is distinguished by streams and rivers that continuously flow water downward.

Trophic Levels

An organism's place in a food web/chain..

Energy Transfer

flow of energy through living things within an ecosystem

Nitrogen Cycle

The infinite cycle of nitrogen moving from the atmosphere to the earth, then back to the atmosphere through soils.

Detritivores

An organism that obtains nutrients by consuming decomposing organic matter.

Carbon Cycle

which affects almost all life and regulates the temperature on Earth, moves between the atmosphere, the land, and the ocean.